Faced with my blank look of incomprehension, the taxi driver took a deep breath and tried again.

"Ha-pi-tu-mi-te-yu," he intoned.

Wow, I thought, six years out of Beijing have turned my once almost fluent Chinese to mush.

Then, it hit me. This was English. "Happy to meet you?" I asked.

He beamed proudly.

Give Beijingers this much: They sure want Olympic visitors to feel at home.

In the seven years since the Olympic movement anointed Beijing as host of the 2008 Summer Games, "makeover" doesn't begin to describe the transformation of the capital.

English-language and anti-spitting lessons for the masses. Entire neighborhoods ripped down and rebuilt. Cutting-edge Western architects let loose to create futuristic landmarks amid the forests of gleaming new towers. The ancient capital has taken on an edgy, neon-electric 21st-century feel.

You have to search harder, in back alleys that the wreckers' balls have yet to reach, for the quiet, intimate village-like atmosphere that long set Beijing apart from more cosmopolitan Hong Kong and Shanghai. In smoothing the rough edges, some charm has been lost.

First-timers and those like myself who haven't been here for a while may find the new Beijing a bit of a jolt. Who knew that the world had so many construction cranes, or produced so much concrete, glass and steel?

The shock of witnessing such voracious change leaves one wondering whether the rest of the world can compete with a waking power as hungry as China. From touchdown at Beijing International Airport, with its new Terminal Three, the world's largest, everything seems designed to impress.

All the modernization makes Beijing easier to visit: ATMs on many blocks, cool art galleries in old Soviet factories, hangouts for backpackers, swanky hotels for the well-heeled, late-night shopping, more clubs than even the most insomniac reveler could get through in a weekend.

The taxis are clean, the buses are new, and there are more subway lines.

Restaurants are plentiful and generally clean, offering all varieties of Chinese cuisine and many foreign ones _ a turnaround from a generation ago when food was scarce and eateries few and dingy.

A nice touch: Many now display color photos of their dishes. No more point-and-hope ordering from menus that often used to be only in Chinese, and where menus are in English, far fewer mistakes. A favorite from the old days, a hole-in-the-wall whose menu offered fried carp with the "a" and the "r" reversed. That eatery, like many old haunts, has now gone, replaced by an office building.

For sightseeing, new landmarks compete for time and attention with older marvels, like the sprawling and ancient Forbidden City and its gate featuring a giant portrait of Mao Zedong _ one of the few visible reminders that this is, at least nominally, still a communist country.

The Olympic architectural jewel is the 91,000-seat, $450 million National Stadium which Beijingers call the Bird's Nest because of the latticework of steel beams wrapped around the exterior. It will host the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events.

The massive security Chinese officials are rolling out poses an Olympic-sized question: Will it kill off the fun, feel like prison, seeing guys in uniform across the city? Perhaps. But the upside is that if a police officer asks you to move on, there's a fair chance he'll be polite and understandable.

A pre-Olympic "Good Manners Campaign" promoted courtesy and orderly queuing and frowned on swearing, spitting and littering in public. One of the Beijing government's slogans, according to state media, was: "Spitting kills even more than an atomic bomb." Paper spit bags have been passed out. In three weeks here in May and June, I didn't hear anyone noisily clearing their throat in public _ a once common sound.

Beijing authorities have also given English lessons to 400,000 people, state media say. Most taxi drivers, hotel employees and all Olympic volunteers have received etiquette and English training. More than 10,000 police officers have received basic work-related "police English" and even some Japanese, Russian and Arabic training.

Among the phrases taught: "Welcome to Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games. I recommend visiting the Great Wall; it is one of the seven wonders of the world."